Karl Jung believed that people fall in love for two reasons. The first is a projection of the displaced «I» on another person. The second is a meeting with the «conductor», which helps to awaken internal, dormant qualities.
Let’s figure out why Matt was in love with Elektra and so attached to Foggy. In other words: as Electra is a projection of the shadow side of Matt, and Foggy - the embodiment of his soul and unconscious potential.
The reason why Matt fell in love with Elektra is quite simple - he saw in her what he himself forbade: spontaneity and freedom. For example, a scene where Elektra doesn’t hesitate to steal a car or one where she rudely tells the blind guy that he doesn’t fit in. For Matt, who constantly has to control his surroundings not only to keep his powers from being revealed, but also because he is blind-it was a trigger. He isn’t just amazed, he is enchanted. Elektra embodies absolute chaos, passion, absence of control. She is his Shadow.
The fact that she can ruin property with impunity, break into a gym, punch a blind guy, fight like a master - all this is impossible for Matt in normal life. Even when he learns from Stick that Elektra was sent to bring him back, and she confirms it, Matt is still willing to run away with her.
Why were his feelings so strong? Because he faced traits that he himself denies, suppresses or considers unacceptable. These are the features of his Shadow, that side of himself he does’t realize or recognize. The subconscious mind projects this displaced part onto another person.
Why is this relationship doomed to failure? Because it is not a mature love for another, but the desire to regain the lost aspect of its integrity. Matt didn’t love Elektra as a man - he loved his Shadow, which he had not recognized in his life. Such relationships often end quickly when the projection breaks down: the person turns out not to be who you saw in him. This is what happens when Elektra pushes him to kill Roscoe Sweeney.
Foggy is a conductor of inner growth. From the very first conversation, he says: “You saved the old man. You’re a hero,” laying in Matt the foundation of being a hero. Unlike Electra, Foggy does’t tempt, but returns to himself the real. He does’t seduce - he grovers, reminds. He does it through care, humor, honesty.
In terms of Jung, Foggy is the archetype of Anima/Animus, launching not conflict, but a path of creative development. Meeting a promoter like Foggy launches the growth scenario. He keeps Matt on the ground, prevents him from going to extremes, talks about the law, about responsibility. This is shown in both the first and third seasons when Foggy says that Fisk can be defeated by legal means.
Foggy is the one who knows the real Matt, accepts his darkness but is not charmed by it. He doesn’t cry out for Matt’s night life like Elektra or Karen. He cares for him, takes care of him.
When Matt loses contact with Foggy in the third season, his struggle turns into self-torture. Only the return of Foggy restores Matt’s support. Foggy always stays close, even when Matt is wrong. This gives Matt the right to forgive himself because he is forgiven by those who know him fully.
Foggy doesn’t make up for the emptiness-it activates personal growth. It doesn’t excite-it stabilizes. It is not passion, but mature love that does not destroy, but collects in pieces. After Foggy’s death, Matt says he doesn’t know who he is. Because the conductor wasn’t just a friend-he was his inner compass.
Jung wrote: when we fall in love, we find not only the other, but also ourselves. This is why, after Foggy’s loss, reality no longer holds Matt back.
Why was Foggy the most reliable and longest man around Matt? Because Matt’s life was subject to a strict rational scenario, there was no peace in it. And suddenly he meets a person, next to whom he begins to create, change, risk, become something greater. Foggy does not fill the hole - it lights the way into Matt himself.
